Anonymous SEC coach's ominous message on college football: 'No such thing as cheating anymore, there are no rules'

An anonymous SEC coach blasted the current state of college football related to the transfer portal and NIL -- calling out the system for having no rules, and thus, no ability to penalize anyone for taking advantage of said system.

“I would say blatant cheating,” an SEC coach told Saturday Down South. “But there’s no such thing as cheating anymore. There are no rules.”

As Saturday Down South's Matt Hayes frames it, the rules will put education far behind potential paydays and program fit on the list of priorities for student-athletes.

"There’s a 15-day 'window' to enter the portal, but once you’re in, you don’t have to make a decision about where you’re playing until the first day of classes in August," Hayes prefaced before saying, "The art of the deal, baby.

"And if you think that’s stupid (it most certainly is), wait until teams/coaches desperate to win big and/or save their jobs begin tampering with other rosters and throw huge NIL deals at impact players to get them to flip."

Lane Kiffin could be the anonymous SEC coach discussing NIL

Hayes included several quotes from Lane Kiffin in the piece, and there's no better way to throw readers off the trail that he could be the anonymous coach by doing so. Given how the way this offseason has gone, it's plausible to think that he's the coach in question.

Kiffin saw a running back he traveled several times to Pike Road for, Quinshon Judkins, leave Ole Miss in the offseason for a bigger NIL payday. Judkins ultimately signed with Ohio State, the 1A in NIL paydays alongside Texas after being rumored to be the player Late Kick's Josh Pate was referring to when he claimed that a player in the SEC sat out a significant game -- presumably the Peach Bowl against Penn State that the Rebels won 38-25 and Judkins ended up suiting up for.

Kiffin's hands aren't red-handed, but there's reason to at least suspect him being the coach to knock the state of college football. The quote reads like one from Nick Saban, truthfully, but Hayes didn't refer to the coach as "former." Adding to it all, Kiffin is the closest thing to Saban from a mentality standpoint.

If the shoe fits...